Planting Garlic

Unwrap your seed garlic and pick your jaw off the floor. This gigantic bulb is Chesnok Red from Filaree Farm. Nope, it's not elephant garlic--it's the real thing. Peel the paper off and separate the cloves.

Ask BrownThumbPapa to make you a Plantermajigger, which will make evenly spaced holes at the correct depth for garlic planting. Convince him that you don't need one with a motor, rotating spikes, or worse. Compromise on a nice piece of 1 x 6 with dowels on one side and handles from an old dresser on the other.

Apply the Plantermajigger to the ground thusly.

Grab the nearest clove and plant it pointy side up. Cover with a bit of soil and pat lightly.

Repeat until you run out of garden or garlic. Since I ran out of garlic with garden to spare, I zipped off to the nursery and picked up some red onions and shallots.

Following that logic...BrownThumbPapa wants to buy more books, since he has bookshelf room to spare. Guess I need to think of another garden tool for him to build!

P.S. Those gloves are the amazing and durable Ethel Jubilee Glove. They're designed for women, fit comfortably and last forever. Fellow garden blogger Katie alerted me to these--thanks, Katie!